A GLuten-Free-Free Town
So I didn’t search too hard, but a quick walk into Scunthorpe didn’t appear to be very promising, when it came to looking for something to eat.
Scunthorpe Town Centre
I think of all the places I’ve been to in the UK, I can’t think I’ve been anywhere that was so lacking in any place that looked like it might be able to sell me a gluten-free meal. Usually, there is an Indian restaurant and they can very often be relied to produced something more than acceptable. But the only such restaurant appeared to be closed at lunchtime.
So I turned to that other standby and bought an egg and potato salad, a drink and a banana in M & S. In fact this was the first M & S in a decent sized town that I’ve found, that didn’t stock gluten-free bread!
But I had prepared myself and I had some smoked salmon sandwiches in my case.
I would hate to live on a gluten-free diet in the town.
Simon Calder on the M25
Simon Calder is one of my favourite writers and his piece on Saturday on the M25 in the free Independent, I got from East Coast was excellent.
I particularly liked this bit.
Time for coffee. No service station graces this stretch of the M25, but handily the coffee bar with the best view in the South-east is just a juggernaut’s shudder from Junction 14. The location is on the departures level of Heathrow Terminal 5. As you wander over from the car park, you can look west to Windsor Castle. And a window seat provides you with a view over one of the busiest runways in the world. On the apron below, Airbuses beetle about, while every minute or two a Boeing whizzes past the window, carrying hundreds of people with stories from afar – some of which would no doubt be told as the M25 guided them home with their meeters and greeters.
It sounds like a place to visit. But I suspect Simon’s publicity means it will be very busy!
The Welcome Invader from the East.
After racing yesterday, I took the train from Thirsk to York, so that I could see my old boss, who was in hospital in York. He seemed better in some ways to when I saw him a few weeks ago, but I understand from his family he has a long way to go. But I know he’ll do it, as he’ll find some way to pull through. I’ll also visit him when I can, as he has been such a great support to me over the previous couple of years through my troubles and I know I must pay that back. But I’m not that good on those sorts of debts!
But as I got back from York to Cambridge for the princely sum of just £13.20, it’s not something that would worry anybody on cost grounds!
After I’d seen him in hospital, I went with his son to the local Premium Inn. They had bottles of Aspall cyder in the bar! So over 250 years after it was first brewed in Suffolk, it finally invades Yorkshire!
I certainly needed a drink after the day I’d had!
Thoughts on Transport to the Den
As I can’t drive, I rely heavily on three things, trains, buses and good old-fashioned walking.
On Tuesday night, I went to Canary Wharf for supper and for many places it is a good place to start an evening trip in London. The parking may be a bit expensive, but you can always get a couple of hours free, if you spend over £10 in one of the shops there. I used to buy something I needed like wine in Waitrose to get the token. Incidentally, is there a more up-market supermarket anywhere in the UK, than this one?
The first step to your evening entertainment, after a meal in one of the many restaurants, is to take the Jubilee Line from Canary Wharf Station, that makes all other Metro stations in the world, look ordinary. I once took a C into the station on the escalator from the surface and asked her to close her eyes, once she was safely on the moving staircase. I then told her to open her eyes a few metres down. The look on her face summed it all up.
As I was going to the Den on Tuesday, I just took one station on the Jubilee Line to Canada Water. From upstairs, I took a P12 bus, which stopped outside the ground. what could have been simpler?
One of the problems at the Den, is that it is an area with very few pubs, restaurants and cafes. My mate, Ian, chose to drive and he had quite a bit of difficulty parking and then finding anything to eat. I got the better deal by going to Canary Wharf.
There are plans to build a new station at Surrey Canal Road on the new East London Line extension to Clapham Junction.
This will make travelling to the Den easier, but it will probably do nothing for the quality of the hostelries in the area! I’m afraid at my age and with my medical conditions, greasy burgers, fish and chips and pints of gassy lager are not for me!
But it will give you more choices of getting to the ground, as it will then be directly connected to many other areas with lots of easily accessible places to eat and drink. For example, Ipswich fans coming in to Liverpool Street, might use the Spitalfields or Brick Lane areas, before going to the match from Shoreditch High Street.
Obviously Canary Wharf makes a good starting point for anything in the West End of London, but with just one simple interchange at Canada Water or Shadwell, it is also a good place to start for anything in South London, if you live north of the river. Crystal Palace, which used to be one of the more difficult grounds to reach is now a lot easier. It’s just a pity that the interchange at Shadwell from the Docklands Light Railway to the East London Line isn’t better.
Pea Therapy
I have my son and his friend to lunch today. I’ve just been shelling peas, which is something that I haven’t done since I was a child.
It seemed to be good therapy for my bad left hand!
A Picture of my Lunch for Kazakh Jock
This was the lunch I took to the football at Ipswich.
My Lunch
The filling is the finest Loch Muir smoked salmon. The bread was the last part of a Marks and Spencer gluten-free loaf.
I ate it with Tam, but he didn’t want much, as he’s a statue!
The Last of the Hunters
In the 1960s, there was a series of adverts for fish, which used the slogan, “Fish! The only food you go out and hunt!”
On the South Quay in Great Yarmouth today, was the Lydia Eva, the last of the steam drifters, that used to dominate herring fishing in the North Sea.
She is now a museum and uniquely a ship that contains a museum, that actually works and goes to sea!
Lunch at the Seafood Restaurant, Great Yarmouth
I had lunch at the Seafood Restaurant on North Quay, which was an easy walk from the station.
The Seafood Restaurant, Great Yarmouth
I had an excellent lunch in a friendly atmosphere. And it was all gluten-free too!
A Post From an Anti-Spam List
I belong to an anti-spam list called Spammers Don’t Like Us.
This was posted today.
Several years back, my now ex and I tried SPAM(R) sandwiches for dinner one night. It didn’t agree with me for some reason. Woke up mumbling a whole bunch of stuff about pills, weight loss, credit cards, discounts, coupon codes, marketing opportunities, etc. Then I just spewed vomit everywhere.
My then wife said “Five five what?? Message? What Message?” I said back to her “Honey, I bounced the spam.” The whole thing was very freudian.
Also was my one and only experience as a backscatterer.
As a coeliac, I should ask if Spam is gluten-free.
A Message from a Jock in Exile in Kazakhstan
I have really upset a friend of mine who is currently working in Kazahkstan, by posting a picture of a bacon sandwich.
Here is what he said.
Here I am in the middle of now where and you show me one of the best things in life. You rotten little bugger !!! O’ps I forgot the HP just to round it off. I am so looking forward to getting home a week on Sunday as being a Jock I am having fish withdrawals as there is absolutely nothing here and I suppose I could not get any further from the open sea. There is Sturgeon but there is a ban on fishing it as they are trying to preserve the Caviar stocks after years of over fishing. So no fish, no scampi, no scallops, no lobster, no crabs in fact no anything which is nice.
Long live good old Blighty.
The Anonymous Widower 